A summary of research projects and publications dealing with mosquitoes, wetlands and urban ecology (as well as other Medical Entomology activities) by Dr Cameron Webb (University of Sydney & Pathology West)

Tag Archives: podcast

This week I’m attending OzPod 2016: the Australian Podcast Conference, a workshop at the ABC, Ultimo. Celebrating International Podcast Day, the workshop brings together podcasters for “an event for the expanding podcast industry to escape the studio or office and meet with peers to share experiences, information, insights and ideas around audience acquisition and retention, new technologies, the rise of the podcast in traditional media, monetizing and of course the fine art of storytelling.”

I’ve been thinking about kicking off a podcast for a while but have been a little reluctant due to time commitments. More importantly, I’ve also wanted to have a clear idea of what exactly I want to do.

In a previous life, I co-hosted a radio show on FBI Radio (during their test broadcast days) with my wife called “Good Morning Gidget”. It was a Saturday morning show of surf music and interviews with professionals involved in a wide range of coastal-based activities, from marine biologists to surf shop owners. Despite the early start on a Saturday morning, it was a load of fun. I’d also worked behind the scenes producing a couple of music shows. If I had more time, I really would have liked to pursue more work with community radio.

Perhaps podcasting will be the backup plan.

It’s great to listen back to packaged interviews with radio, like the Health Report (I’m talking zika virus) but I was also lucky enough to have a chance to contribute to a few podcasts this year. I spoke with Science On Top about the outbreak of Zika virus and the implications it has for Australia,Flash Forward on what will happen if we eradicate mosquitoes from the planet and ArthroPod on what its like to study mosquitoes for a living!

All these were a lot of fun and were really motivating for me to want to get started with podcasting myself.

I feel like my experience with sound recording and ongoing engagement with media provides a solid background in most of the technical skills I need to get started. I’m hoping I’ll leave the OzPod 2016 conference with a few more tips on story telling and structuring a podcast too.

What I’ve been struggling with is format. I like the conversational nature of most podcasts but as I’ll probably be doing everything myself, perhaps a more structured and edited podcast is the go?

There are very few podcasts I listen to that are built around a one-person show. I’m not sure I could pull it off. Does anyone really want to listen to me ramble on for 20 mins about mosquitoes? 40minutes?

Sometime over the coming summer I hope to launch a short series of podcasts covering some of the basics of mosquito biology and how that relates to the ways we protect ourselves and our families from mosquito bites and mosquito-borne disease. I want to share my fascination with mosquitoes and explore some of the gaps in our understanding of mosquitoes, particularly their role in our local environment.

Hopefully I can recruit some of my colleagues from around Australia for a chat too so we can share a little about the science behind our public health messages and what life is like to be chasing mosquitoes around swamps all summer

Sound like a good idea? Join the conversation on Twitter and let me know what you think, would you listen to a podcast about Australian mosquitoes?

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Joel Werner (pictured above) from Radio National’s Off Track program a couple of times over the past 12 months. Not surprisingly, it was about mozzies!

The first show was broadcast back in May 2012 and concentrated mostly on our work in the laboratory and some of the background to our field-based research into the development of strategies to reduce the risks of mosquito-borne disease in coastal Australia. Joel did a great job recording our interview in the noisy surrounds of our insectary at Westmead Hospital!

The second show was broadcast in March 2013. It was recorded out in the field. Joel and I took a stroll through the saltmarsh at Sydney Olympic Park and chatted about the various techniques of mosquito sampling. While Joel was able to get his feet wet out in the wetlands, I think he got off quite lightly when it comes to mozzies. I don’t think he got a single bite!

I was really happy with how both radio shows came together. They provide a really nice and informative overview of the work I do, combining some of the laboratory and field components of my day-to-day work. You can download each of the programs by following the links above.

Off Track is broadcast Saturday 1:30pm (Repeated: Sunday 6:30am) on Radio National (ABC). You can follow Joel on Twitter too for some insight into how the show is put together.